Thursday, August 16, 2012

Google Cloud Print - great tool with great features

Google Cloud Print is a very cool, useful service Google has. Google Cloud Print connects your printers to the web, allowing you to print from any device (smartphone, tablet, Chrome device, PC, or other web-connected devices) without any cables. Heck, you don't even have to be in the same building, or state, for that matter.

It is easy to use and has some great features. You can print to cloud-ready printers that don't require a PC or to a printer that is connected to a Windows, Mac, or Linux computer with internet access using the Google Cloud Print connector in Google Chrome. You can even share your printers with other people. And, you can now print out your documents at FedEx offices.

I've been using it for a while now, but forgot about this great feature. You can save a copy of documents and web pages as PDF files in Google Docs/Drive. You just select "Save to Google Docs/Drive" as your printer and it will convert the file to a PDF document and save it in your Google Drive. This is a great way to save documents for later printing or just to save electronic versions of them.

It's a great resource for anyone, and schools. You can have shared printers without all the fuss of networking them. Just share them to the staff and have them use Google Cloud Print. Teachers could also use it for printers in their classrooms, to print to your school computer from home or vice versa, and to save documents and websites instead of printing them.